Which statement weakens confidence in the authors' explanation? (Passage: Sleep and memory)
Researchers asked 80 students to learn a list of word pairs in the evening. Half then slept normally while the other half stayed awake all night. After two further nights of recovery sleep, both groups were tested, and the group who had slept on the first night recalled about 20 per cent more pairs. The authors suggest that sleep soon after learning helps to stabilise new memories, although they accept that sleep deprivation may also have caused the second group to feel distressed, which could have affected performance.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Distress in the sleep-deprived group may have lowered their scores
- Step 1: Look for a possible alternative explanation. Step 2. The authors concede distress could have affected performance, so the difference might not be due to memory stabilisation. Answer: Distress in the sleep-deprived group may have lowered their scores. Why not the others: Equal test timing and the task type do not undermine the explanation; sample size is not a stated concern.
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